It's that time of year again, the time when I disregard all responsibilities in favor of twisting and tying intricate series of knots until they resemble clothing. Yup, knitting season is in full swing and I'm building up quite the inventory of cozy accessories including hats, ear warmers, infinity scarves, and boot cuffs. I have versions of each of these for myself, but still need an activity to curb my tendency to fidget. Knitting season is a perfect opportunity to occupy my restless hands and add some items to the Etsy shop. My goal is to use up the remaining yarn stash in time to be replenished during the Christmas holiday so... family, take note. You can find patterns I've already reported on here and here if you have any interest in attempting them yourself and keep an eye out for others in the near future. I have enough rotating items to keep myself interested, but am always looking for new patterns to throw in the mix so if you have any simple but stylish ideas send them my way! And be sure to check out the shop throughout the chillier months, I will add listings as items become available (as fast as my hands can knit) or contact me if you're interested in a custom order.

A huge thank you to my dear friend, Rachel, for modeling my yarn stuffs better than I ever could so I can minimize the number of cringey self-portraits I have to put on the internet 😬

My goal with the intermediate students was to show them ways in which graphic design can be applied to a career. Most of our projects had some real world application to them, this usually required that the students collaborate with each other as well as across departments to get their work out of the classroom and off their laptops. Their assignments required more thought and effort than the intro class, but were also way more fun (at least from my perspective). Because they already had some foundational knowledge, I allowed the intermediate students to play a more active role in the types of projects we did. I was writing the curriculum as the year went along so if a student had a idea they were passionate about all they had to do was present their concept to me and I could usually find a way to make it work. One of these assignments was to create a coloring book by illustrating the pages using Photoshop's drawing tools. This assignment was the result of a student bringing her coloring book to class and letting me play with it. 

I first asked them to brainstorm and select a theme for their coloring book; one class chose endangered species and the other chose places around the world (I stupidly forgot to transfer some of the pieces from my work laptop before I returned it so unfortunately the only examples I have below are the endangered species). After helping them set up the format of their workspace, the students used a combination of freehand drawing and scanning and digital pattern making in Photoshop to complete their illustrations. ​It wasn't the most seamless approach to the assignment, but the experience inspired me to buy some Wacom tablets for the classroom and boy are they game changers. I don't have one for personal use yet, but I do have a birthday in the not so distant future... ahem. Ultimately, the intention was to get them professionally printed and sell them in the school store. If you've followed my journey a little you know that unfortunately I moved away before this came to fruition, but it would have been a wonderful way to introduce the students to the business end of turning your creative pursuits into a career. ​

​Shout out to my lovely students, I still have my copy and yes I use it.

People often conflate being a visual artist with having beautiful handwriting. Unfortunately, despite years of rigorous catholic schooling it is a skill I never developed. So when I was appointed the role of car decorator for my soon-to-be family's weddings I was a little apprehensive. I've done two so far and after realizing this is now my official job, I did some research the second time around. I came across ThePostmansKnock.com and it appears to be a one stop shop for all things calligraphy and hand lettering (a non-cursive form of decorative writing). Ideally, you would use a dip pen to create the varying line weights within your calligraphy strokes, but there are certain surfaces for which a dip pen just isn't practical... a car window is one of them. Thanks to TPK, I was able to achieve the look of dip pen calligraphy with a chisel tipped window marker by using a technique called faux calligraphy.

The first step is to write your chosen word or phrase in whatever cursive font you like. Make sure to leave enough space between each letter so you can add to the line weight later.

Next, draw a line parallel to each downstroke. A downstroke is just what it sounds like, any place you have drawn your pen down the page while writing. It can be helpful to retrace your motions in the air just above the page to determine where your downstrokes begin and end.

The final step is to fill in the spaces on your downstrokes, however you can also stop after the second step for a more stylized look.

That's it! Three very simple steps. The tricky part is developing your muscle memory. The more fluid your hand motion, the better your writing will look. I still have to look back and forth between a sample and my own page so you can clearly see where my hand stopped or hesitated. This technique (and any form of calligraphy really) seems to be a craft in which practice is essential. I'm just starting out so let's see how long it takes me to develop that beautiful curvy handwriting everyone already assumes I possess. If you're interested at all in practicing the art of  calligraphy, I highly recommend this Beginner's Guide to Modern Calligraphy. It's what I will be using in my attempt to finally make the educators of St. Margaret's School proud.

After the drawing and selection tools, the third major Photoshop tool group I focused on with my first year graphic designers were the retouching tools (patch, healing brush, spot healing brush, clone stamp, content-aware delete). The retouching tools are always my favorite to work with and teach since they perform the magic that everyone associates with Photoshop. I love showing students how to use them because there's a literal "ta-da!" moment that is so fun to watch. We completed a brief introductory exercise together and once everyone had a handle on the tools we moved into the final project. The students selected genres from a hat and visited that section of the library to gather photographs from cover art and illustrations. Once back in the classroom, we discussed examples of strong compositions in famous works of art. They then used the selection tools to isolate parts of their images and collage them onto one half of their workspace in Photoshop. Students were required to assemble either a diagonal, triangular, or S-shaped composition. Once their collage was completed they merged the layers, copied the collage, and moved the copy to the other half of their workspace. From here they used the retouching tools to complete the following list of alterations:

• Remove 3 elements
• Swap an element with another
• Repeat an element 3 times
• Hide 3 elements
  • Wallace (because yes, of course my students were familiar with the prince)
  • A Panda (our school mascot)
  • Yourself
• Change the color of 3 elements

Once their pieces were finished, students traded collages and solved each other's puzzles.
Can you spot the differences?

 While cruising around the Internet the other day, this party game caught my eye… probably due to my recent dabbling in the world of paint chip crafts. It appears to be a cross between apples to apples and magnetic poetry for the visually inclined. The rules are pretty straightforward: “Players draw handfuls of paint chips and a prompt card, then rearrange the chips to create spontaneous poems out of the color names.” The results are said to “range from profound to hilarious” and are extremely visually striking I’m sure. I’m actually surprised this product didn’t exist sooner since paint color names generally lean towards nonsensical or absurd. Anyone who has ever browsed the paint department of their local Home Depot has undoubtedly wondered how the colors get names such as Skipping School, Hamster Cuddles, Spirit Whisper, Grandma’s Refrigerator, and Stanky Bean (you can thank an AI for coming up with that one). Regardless, they definitely lend themselves to the world of word games. I considered creating a set of my own, but despite appearances my life does require that I leave my house... sometimes.

The ring is beautiful and I have no qualms about wearing it, but because I love it so much I want to protect it. I've seen some ring holding necklaces around the internet, but none that fit the form and function I was looking for. Necklaces with an easy clip in design usually feature the not so cute lobster claw clasp and necklaces with an attractive minimalist design have a more complicated attachment mechanism. So I decided to look into making my own. After researching jewelry suppliers, I settled on RioGrande.com. You're required to create an account to purchase any of their products because, "The U.S. Patriot Act requires all suppliers of precious metals to maintain full contact information for all of its customers." (Um...it does?!), but they were the only supplier that sold all necessary components to complete this project. Once I received the goods, the construction of this necklace was incredibly simple. Here's how it's done:

Now that I've settled into my new digs, I've finally begun to explore the neighborhood a bit. One of my favorite places is a jewelry boutique called Catbird and no it's not solely due to the name... though that doesn't hurt. Located in the heart of Williamsburg, Catbird is one of those shops you find yourself returning to again and again for no obvious reason. Their cases are filled with the kind of tiny sparkly things, beauty products, and home trinkets you just want to spend time around. A while back, I did find myself there for a specific purpose (upon which I will elaborate later), but since then I've returned just because the atmosphere makes me happy. Maybe all these good vibes have something to do with the fact that they employ local artists to create their Catbird jewelry line with ethically sourced materials and conflict free stones, sell cruelty free beauty products, and donate 1% of all sales proceeds to organizations aligned with their core beliefs. Whatever it is, it's got me coming back. Keep it up, Catbird.